Born in Singapore, raised by English grandparents, Cheryl’s formative artistic years were infused with the exotic colonial flavour of post-war South East Asia. This coupled with her intimate exposure to the rich expatriate culture has formed the basis of her artwork.
Moving to Australia as a young girl, Cheryl pursued her artistic career amid the isolation and timelessness of the far north, raging from the Pilbara region of Western Australia to Darwin at the top end of the Northern Territory. As her work matured, reflecting the region’s blend of a true cosmopolitan culture and a distinctive South East Asia imprint, Cheryl developed her own unique and characteristic style. Her symbolic rendering of this urbane melting pot of Northern Australian cultures and artistic styles tinged with the influences of her heritage are clearly evident in her works.
Cheryl King’s work changed over the years, taking exciting and unexpected directions. More visual abstract qualities have been increasingly emphasised, analysed and finally isolated by the painter resulting in a body of work reflecting the influence of abstract artists such as Jackson Pollock for whom Cheryl professes a great personal admiration.
This development of a more intensely personal style brings to the fore an impressive arrangement of lines, forms, tone and colour depicting external reality as a series of non-representational relationships. While living in Adelaide in the 90′s, Cheryl opened and managed a successful gallery in Adelaide afterwhich her work overseas took precedence. Cheryl moved to Melbourne in the late 90′s.
Cheryl has exhibited her works both privately and publicly in Melbourne where she now resides permanently.
Cheryl has exhibited her works in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul. Closer to home have been exhibitions in the Northern Territory, New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria. This exposure has gained her acclaim resulting in numerous visual art awards.
Her works are now prized in numerous private collections throughout Australia, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. And it can be found gracing corporate offices throughout Australia and Asia.
As one of Australia’s more interesting contemporary artists, Cheryl King’s work can be seen as a vivid reflection of where we are today – modern, cosmopolitan, post-colonial, yet infused with an exotic Asian influence.